Academy Award for Best Actress
The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It has been awarded since the 1st Academy Awards to an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year. The award is traditionally presented by the previous year's Best Actor winner.
| Academy Award for Best Actress | |
|---|---|
The 2022 recipient: Michelle Yeoh | |
| Awarded for | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role |
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) |
| First awarded | 1929 |
| Most recent winner | Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once (2023) |
| Most awards | Katharine Hepburn (4) |
| Most nominations | Meryl Streep (17) |
| Website | oscars |
The Best Actress award has been presented a total of 95 times, to 79 actresses. The first winner was Janet Gaynor for her roles in 7th Heaven, Street Angel, and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. The most recent winner is Michelle Yeoh for Everything Everywhere All at Once, who is the first Southeast Asian actress to win. The record for most wins is four, held by Katharine Hepburn. Frances McDormand has won three times, and twelve other actresses have won the award twice. Meryl Streep has received the most nominations in the category—seventeen—and has won twice. At the 41st Academy Awards, Barbra Streisand and Katharine Hepburn received the same number of votes and thus tied for Best Actress—the only time this has occurred.